DRAUPADI _ XXXIV

   

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty's 

DRAUPADI - XXXIV

If end is the close

of all reckoning pain fraught

dream ridden haughty recondite

desires of climbing heights

only to fall in the grave or

in a ditch attended by none

save maggots and vultures

why dream of a world of your own!

Others seen and unseen interfere

guide to perdition or pamper you

to folly: These too are other directed.

Is it all pre ordained or magic

unreal and ephemeral, to end

your dialogue half delivered!

The curtain falls when you are

ready to close your best soliloquy.

 

Draupadi clamped her  head

to drive away the dark cobwebs.

She knew she was a mere player

she must play a true thespian

in all roles of her vast life.

She is the Queen and may be

Empress, if the Rajasuya Yajna

comes of well as they now plan -

Oh! again mortal ambitions bind me

to hopes and dreams of no avail.

 

Tonight she will be with Arjun

for whom her heart beats.

Exiled love returns to illuminate

the murk of her world - with him

she cannot play just a role

she wants to be herself, the young

bride waiting to embrace life

with a passionate kiss of the soul.

Her lovesprings flow wild

jumping the course beyond the seas;

but she is not what she was

when Arjun walked triumphant

to look in her eyes which dazzled

with her heart in them all aglow!

 

Draupadi had decided to meet

each husband as a different wife.

The eldest is virtuous, truthful

yet addicted to the dice board

often he played alone to find

amity, victory - military and political.

Yudhistira quested for

the balance of mind and the world

in the royal square of the dice board:

Draupadi remembered how they played

their honeymoon was an intercourse

of ideas, empires, administration, power

and the dice game was at the centre...

 

A wry smile flashed and died

in her face, the eldest never saw

her beauty, her luscious figure

he could see her mind's expanse

and dived into the depth of her wisdom.

Valiant Bhimsen was ready and eager

she responded with erotic passion

which Bhima enjoyed and lavished

all his sweetness on her body and mind

with insatiable libido and reassuring words.

 

But Arjun is different I know

he is in Krishna's mould a scholar

unbeatable archer, chivalrous hero

soulfully I love him and wish to

have him as my lover to romance

with him under the full moon

away from the palace in some arbour

of cuckoo songs, night queens and grass

thrilled by the murmurs of a stream!